Former British Airways steward killed partner in Travelodge

A former British Airways steward who conned colleagues out of £200,000, was
found guilty of murdering his partner in a Travelodge hotel room.

Victim Gareth MacDonald (lt) and Glenn Rycroft who has been convicted of his murderPhoto: CENTRAL / PA

7:37PM BST 02 Jul 2009

Glenn Rycroft was a prolific conman, the Old Bailey heard. He battered Gareth MacDonald over the head with a fire extinguisher at the hotel at the M4 Heston services in September 2007.

Mr MacDonald, a 30-year-old father of three, had left his wife and children to move in with Rycroft in Rhewl, North Wales, after meeting him on the internet.

But the victim had started to become suspicious of his lover after money started going missing from his bank account.

Detectives believe Rycroft had targeted MacDonald to cheat money out of him in the latest of his scams.

Detective Sergeant Nick Mason said: "Gareth MacDonald and his family had money and Glenn Rycroft obviously realised that. It was another gravy train for him.

"It is quite obvious that Rycroft is motivated by greed and he is the type of person who will do anything to get his hands on some money."

Rycroft, 33, originally from Salford, Greater Manchester, denied murder, claiming he planned to marry Mr MacDonald and would never harm him.

He claimed a rent boy must have killed him while he was out of the room but jurors rejected his story and he now faces a life sentence. Sentencing was adjourned until Friday.

Rycroft had conned BA colleagues and relatives in an investment scam starting in September 2000. Some of them lost their life savings.

When he was on the verge of being caught out, he pretended he had cancer to fleece more cash out of his victims.

He shaved his head to pretend he was having chemotherapy and accused those he owed money to of being insensitive about his illness.

Rycroft organised raffles and other fundraising events on the pretext that he had to go abroad for expensive medical treatment and used the money to go on lavish holidays to Florida, Australia, Portugal and the Bahamas.

In December 2003 he admitted 25 charges of obtaining money by deception to the tune of more than £200,000, none of which has ever been recovered.

Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said: "This defendant has shown himself to be rather more than a common-or-garden liar. He is rather a good one."